In 1716, the 27 year old author accompanied her ambassador husband to his posting in Constantinople. In a series of letters to the folks back home, she exclaims over the experienceof their progress through Europe - from the Court at Vienna, , through the snowy plains of Hungary, with their 'vast quantity of wolves' and on to Serbia. She writes of the all-powerful janissaries, under whom the monarch is but a puppet.
They remain for sometime in Adrianople (Edirne) - where the author encounters a 'new world'. As one of the first female visitors, she is able to discover the world of the harem, Turkish baths etc. In order to go about unmarked, she adopts Turkish drress; she observes that Turkish women enjoy more liberty than the English....all veiled up, they now have "entire liberty of following their inclinations without danger of discovery" since "'tis impossible for the most jealous husband to know his wife when he meets her". This coupled with their significantly greater control over their money than English women, cause her to pronounce them "the only free people in the empire."
Her letters contain all manner of historical treasures- the Turks had invented a king of precursor to smallpox innoculation ("engrafting" ); camels; interior decor; visits to the seraglio; a great parade ...
At last they continue on to Constantinople...an allergic reaction to cosmetic 'balm of Mecca'; the fire risk of the Turkish heating system, the tandir stove,a meeting with the melancholy Sultana Hafise, coerced into remarriage after being widowd; mosques and palaces...
The letters conclude on their return to Dover, some 18 months on.Montague concludes that since, now "I must be contented with out=r scanty allowance of daylight, (may I) forget the enlivening sun of Constantinoiple."
Quite an interesting read. ( )

The author of this series of letters was a feminist,a traveller and the wife of the ambassador to Constantinople. She travelled there in 1716 with her husband on a not very successful visit. These letters were written from various places on the way,including Vienna,Adrianple and Constantinople itself. They are notable for their descriptive passages and their not always politicly correct comments. In the course of these letters she describes not only the various countries that she passes through,but the people she meets,especially the women of the harem, for whom she admires greatly. The writer constantly tells her corespondents that she is not going to fill her letters with descriptions of buildings and suchlike,neither will she tell of her husbands embassy. She informs them that all this is well known already and that she prefers to write of things fresh and new. In short Lady Mary is a letter writer of the first order.
A marvelous selection by a wonderful writer. I look forward to finding more of her letters in a more complete form elsewhere. ( )

Travelling through the wartorn Balkans with her husband on what proved to be a wholly useless diplomatic mission to Constantinople, Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) left a vivid, informative, clever account of her adventures in the mysterious, sophisticated culture of Ottoman palaces, bathing places and courts which - even as her husband's career was falling apart - she could not have enjoyed more.